1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to electronic circuits, and in particular to a current limiter and a method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Current limiters, connected to a load of an electric circuit, limit the current thereto under abnormal situations, such as short-circuit, to prevent the electronic circuit from being damaged by excessive current therethrough.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,804,102 B2 discloses a conventional voltage regulator limiting the current providing to a load to a first threshold current by comparing an input voltage of the load with a threshold voltage. FIG. 8 shows a relationship of output voltage Vout with respect to supply voltage VSC for the conventional voltage regulator and a desirable current limiter. A curve 80 represents the supply voltage—output voltage relationship of the voltage regulator, where the range of output voltage Vout is restricted by the threshold voltage. A curve 82 indicates the desirable current limiter with increasing output voltage Vout as supply voltage VSC increases. There exist a need for a current limiter and a method to provide current limiting capability without input voltage restriction.